Assassin's Creed: Evolution
by Maccattack213
Summary: Shaun and Rebecca Hastings, after the events of the Assassin's Creed series, settle down together. They have two children, Chase and Noah. But then their ideal regular life goes awry.
1. Chapter One: He Is Protected

The school yard was nearly empty as all the kids made their way home, just wanting to get away from school as fast as possible. Noah Hastings, a small boy, eleven years of age, strode away with his head down, hoping no one would notice him. He clutched a laptop close to his chest. He was a computer nerd. No, _the_ computer nerd. He could write in three coding languages by the time he was nine, HTML, CSS and Java. By now he had a repertoire of around seven.

"Oi you!" came a shout from behind him. Noah turned, looking to see the school bully, Jackson, and his group of thugs walk up behind him.  
"Great." He muttered to himself.

They fanned out in a circle around him and Jackson stepped forward. He nodded to the computer.  
"Nice laptop. Mind if I take a look?" He asked, taking it from Noah's hands.  
"Go ahead" he said, no one listening, or caring.

Jackson opened the laptop up, only to see a black screen with a bunch of incomprehensible green letters and numbers. Fazed, he pretended to understand what they meant.  
"Oh yeah, this was my idea, you stole it! I wrote this stuff and you pagi… plager… plajiaris…" He faltered, not knowing what the word was.

"Plagiarised." Noah said.

"Shut up! Don't interrupt me!" He screamed, taking a swing at Noah's stomach. Jackson's fist slammed into Noah and he fell to the ground. Jackson was an easy three times Noah's height.

Noah's brother, Chase, came out of the school building. He stopped on the stairs and looked at what was going on. Noah saw him and sighed. Chase and Noah had never gotten along. He was more likely to join in beating Noah up than help. They hated each other. Noah looked away as Jackson hit him again in the back. One of his thugs saw Chase and called out to him.  
"Hey Chase! Wanna lend a hand here?" Noah groaned. _Great, _he thought._ Two on one._

There was a small cry of alarm and a thump. Noah, his face on the ground, didn't see what had happened, but assumed that Jackson had hit one of his 'friends' for fun.

"Whoa whoa, Chase, what are you doing!" Jackson said, alarm creeping into his voice. Noah tried to turn and look but his back wouldn't let him.  
Chase was half as big as Jackson, but he had a natural talent for beating the hell out of people.

Chase stood on the staircase and took a look at what was unfolding before him. His brother, Noah, was lying on the ground, getting the life beat out of him. _Good,_ Chase thought. He started walking down the stairs and stopped.  
"Hey Chase! Wanna lend a hand here?" Zach called out from the circle. Him and Chase weren't really friends, but they would hang out from time to time.

Jackson kicked Noah in the back.

Something inside Chase snapped.

"GET OFF MY BROTHER!" Chase shouted as he sprinted at Jackson. His fist flew through the air and collided with Jackson's nose. There was a snap and blood came out in streams. Jackson started shouting obscenities. Chase's knee came up and slammed into Jackson's crotch. He fell to the ground and his thugs made their move.

One tried to punch Chase, but he grabbed his arm, pulled him off balance and swept his legs out from under him. The thug landed on the ground with a crunch.

Another tried to tackle Chase, but he dodged and lifted his fist. The thugs momentum plus Chase's strength knocked the kid out cold. The others look at him and ran.

Chase looked around at the bodies, then at Noah. He picked up his laptop, shut its lid and placed it on the ground next to Noah. Then he turned his back on him and walked off.

From that day on, Chase had Noah's back. Every time someone though they would pick on the nerdy kid, they got a face full of gravel as they were thrown into a wall or something equally as solid. Noah didn't know why he was doing it. Nothing else had changed. They weren't friends. They didn't talk. Chase just suddenly seemed very… protective of Noah.


	2. Chapter Two: Friendship

One night, when Noah was thirteen years old, he was sitting in his room. His laptop screen was the only light in the room, illuminating his face staring at the screen. He was lying on his bed, his laptop on his lap, wires sticking out of it in all directions. One connected it to three other screens, showing information and data on various things. Another lead into a small circuit board. A small LED was flashing on it, indicating it was being coded. Another lead into another board, this one with a small screen plugged into it. It showed another set of numbers and words that made no sense to the common person.

A two litre bottle of coca cola lay against his thigh, half empty. He muttered to himself as his fingers flashed over the keyboard, occasionally adjusting his glasses.

There was a knock at the door.

"Mmm?" Noah grunted distractedly, not taking his eyes off the screen. There door opened and shut again. Noah glanced up, then back at the screen. Then he slowly lifted his head and his hands stopped mashing the keyboard.

"Oh… Hey Chase… Something I can… something i can help you with?" He wasn't sure what to say, Chase never entered his room, at least he never did without barging in and taking his laptop.

Chase awkwardly sat on the end of his bed and nodded to one of the three screens.  
"Whats, uh, whats that?"  
"Oh thats not much, its just the source code of the governments website, and this one," he indicated another screen. "This one is the CSS file and the other is the HTML file. This one on the laptop is…" He trailed off, noticing the lost look on Chase's face. "Sorry. Got excited. Whats up?"

Chase slowly shook his head.  
"Are you seriously trying to hack the governments website again?" A smile split his lips, even if it were a small one. Noah laughed.

"Possibly."  
"Remember how that went last time? You're lucky mums old friends with the mayor. If she wasn't, you would've been in a hell of a lot of trouble."  
"Yeah, but I was nine at the time. I know what i'm doing now. Need proof?'

"Shoot." Chase said. Noah pointed to a pile of wires and little black things all joined together. Chase had no idea what it was.  
"Plug that into the TV screen." Chase picked it up and looked at it. Upon closer inspection, he still had no idea what the hell it was. He walked over to Noah's TV and plugged it in. Turning the television on, he watched as a computer screen appeared instead of a show.

"The hell is that thing?"  
"Micro-computer. Built it myself. Cool hey?" Chase just looked at him. Noah sighed. "Just open the internet." Chase did.

"Now," Noah said, not looking up from his screen, "go to the governments website." Chase did.

It loaded as it should, nothing out of the ordinary.

"What am i meant to be looking at?"  
"Just wait."

Noah's fingers flew across the keyboard, lines of code being created before him. Chase was actually somewhat impressed. Looking back at the television screen, he watched as words began to disappear.

"Uh, Noah, is that meant to be happening?"

"yep!" He said, as a whole text box was deleted from the webpage.

"I'm not entirely sure this is legal Noah…" Chase said, unsure.  
"Either am I! But don't worry, I'll put it back the way i found it, I created a backup copy."  
"Oh… ok then." More words were deleted. Eventually the entire page was white.  
"Sooooo… what was the point of that?"

Noah didn't reply.

Some letters, one by one, began to appear on the page.

Chase looked, waiting to see what was happening.

Slowly the words began to take form.

Chase smiled, then laughed.  
Two words were there, in place of important government information.

Two words that legally shouldn't be there.

Just two words.

Hey Chase.


	3. Chapter Three: Is this legal?

From that day forth, they were friends. They didn't hang out together at school or pay too much attention to each other in public, but Chase was always there for Noah when some tough guy tried something. In return, Noah was alway there for Chase whenever he needed help with his computer, or needed something downloaded that wasn't entirely… legitimate.

Their parents, Shaun and Rebecca, were delighted that the boys were finally getting along. Noah got his computer skills from his mother. She was a IT technician. No one knew where Chase got his natural fighting skills from, but as soon as they showed, he was enrolled at a martial arts club. He loved it. Shaun was an accountant for some big company. Later, neither boy would recall ever being told the name.

At that moment, the sun was shining overhead and the boys were sitting on the veranda, chatting away. Shaun and Rebecca watched from the kitchen window.  
"We need to tell them." Shaun stated.

"No! We can't! They would be devastated we kept it from them and it would put them in so much danger!" Rebecca said, he voice rising, attracting the attention of Noah and Chase. Shaun signed for them no to worry, and they went back to their conversation.

"Shh Rebecca, please. What if something happens? What if suddenly they found us? I know we're both retired, only helping out every now and then, but that doesn't take away the fact we have valuable information."  
"No… I don't think we should tell them… what if something does happen? Like you said, we will be valuable hostages. But we need to make sure they aren't. They know anything, anything at all, and Abstergo will torture it out of them." Shaun sighed and reluctantly agreed.

Noah sat in his usual spot on his bed, laptop sitting in front of him. He was fifteen now, and Chase was seventeen. The three other screens were disconnected and the boards with the LEDs were sitting on his bedside table, dusty and old. The microcomputer sat on the top of his bookshelf which was stacked with programming manuals and engineering guides. There were new things covering his floor, a mixture between electronic components, wires and little green motherboard-looking things.

Chase opened the door and Noah looked up.  
"Hows it goin?" Chase asked, pointing to the half built contraption on his floor.  
"Not too bad. I can't seem to find my old phone. You know, the one with the black and silver case? Cracked screen and all?" Chase knew the one.  
"Yeah, what do you need that for?"

"I need the receiver from it, the thing that lets it connect to the satellites and whatnot." Noah went back to his computer screen. "Just trying to find out how to make my own now. Augh this will be tedious." Chase looked at him and smiled.  
"Be right back!" He shouted and took off out the door.

"Chase where are you-" but he was already gone.

When Chase walked back in the door, a triumphant smile on his face, Noah was sitting on the floor, tinkering with the mess of wires.  
"Here you are." He said, tossing the old phone Noah had been looking for into his lap. "It was in that cupboard full of junk in the living room."

Noah looked at him quizzically and muttered "I swear I looked there…"

Chase started talking but stopped once he realised Noah had zoned out. He did that often when he was working on one of his inventions. The phone was slowly being methodically pulled apart. Once it was completely open and there was a small pile of components sitting by his side, he looked up and saw Chase. He had forgotten he was there. Chase nodded back to the phone.  
"Is that it?" Noah reached in and pulled out a small card-like thing.  
"Yup." He said. Pushing the remaining pieces of phone away, he dragged the mess of wires nearer. He inserted the card into a slot that looked like it was purpose built to house that exact thing. A small light lit up. He reached over and grabbed a small screen, around the size of his Iphone one. Plugging it in, the machine wirred to life.

Some numbers appeared on the screen and a small internet symbol faded on.

"Whats it do?" Chase asked. Noah smirked.  
"Ever wanted free internet?"


End file.
